Scripture Reference 1 Corinthians 2 : 4-5

⁴ My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵ so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

1 Kings 18: ²⁵ Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.” ²⁶ So they took the bull given them and prepared it.

Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.

²⁷ At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” ²⁸ So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. ²⁹ Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.

Life Lesson: God is not impressed with our emotional displays or our fabrications of the moving of the Spirit. Nothing is a substitute for the genuine manifestation of God’s Presence in the midst of His people!  Nothing!

Elijah watched as the false prophets shouted, screamed and danced around all day. They put on one fantastic performance! Elijah had a ringside seat!  But guess what? There was no response to the dramatic antics put on by the impassioned prophets of Baal. Baal did not respond. I’ll give you three guesses as to why Baal was unresponsive … Baal did not respond for the simple reason that Baal did not exist! 

Listen friend, you can be a sincere worshiper of a false god but you can also be sincerely wrong. People will retort by saying, “But they are so sincere!”  Do you think for half a second the Baal prophets were being anything but sincere as they screamed, shouted and even cut themselves in expectation of an answer? How did Elijah respond to the sincere worshippers of Baal?  Elijah mocked them. Why? Not to be mean but because their misguided worship of this false god had led the people of God away from God!  Anything that pulls us away from our worship of God is not of God!  Anything that mankind has put in place of the One True God, no matter how sincere it seems is an abomination because by it the people God loves are led away from trusting in God and in His Word for their salvation and that friend, is in the end, horrifying!